Family helps thwart abduction attempt

An alert Lee County family led deputies straight to a person of interest in an attempted abduction. We spoke to the terrified teen who says the man tried to grab her while she was walking to grandma's house.

A 16-year-old girl was walking through her Pine Manor neighborhood to her grandmother's house when she says she was approached by an older man.

"He tried to grab me, but I ran," said the teen, who wanted to remain anonymous.

She says the man – who is about 50-years-old with gray hair and a mustache - drove up to her and began following her.

"So, I started walking faster," the teen described.

But, she says, the man wasn't going anywhere.

"He made a U-turn and he got out of the car and tried to get me," she remembered.

At that point, she ran to her aunt's home that was located right around the corner.

As the girl was telling her uncle what happened, she says her family spotted the car - still cruising around.

She says her uncle ran up to the driver.

"He asked the man, ‘Why were you trying to take my niece?' And the man said, ‘Oh, I was trying to ask her a question,'" the girl said.

The teen says her uncle punched the man, who then took off - but not before her grandmother was able to write down the man's tag number.

Right now, that man is considered a person of interest in this case and deputies still need to talk to him.

Friday night, the teen is relieved this didn't have a different ending.